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Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Today at the Happy Vixen, there will be a couple things different at the club. One is the addition of Brandi Streusel's latest line of clothes up for sale, the proceeds going to help out RECoyote. The other is the special tipjar, the money given to that also going to REC. Nydia Tungsten told the Newser that she plans to give out some of the clothes to donors. The event starts at 4PM, and ends at 8PM, with two DJs, Geerkil and Tantari.

A "Tail Sale" is also being planned to help out REC. So far, several people have stepped up. Today is the last day people can step up to take part in it. People can made bids on the volunteers from February 1 to 9, with the winners tallied near the end of the day. Those interested in volunteering IM Nydia Tungsten.

There's just something about the Old West that has a deep appeal to people, and not just to Americans. Here, a man could make a new start for himself, whether someone from a large family wanting his own farm, an immigrant wanting more than a factory job but his own home, former slaves and freedmen looking for new opportunities not available in their old home, prospectors looking to strike it rich, businessmen looking to make a buck, adventurers looking to make a name for themselves, lawmen trying to bring order and justice to the frontier, and more. But where there are people, there are always opportunists whom would rather rob or con others than work at making their money honestly, and so there were the outlaws or badmen. And the land wasn't empty. The place was the home of American Indian tribes, either whom had been here since the dawn of history or perhaps having moved here after being forced from the east. How to adapt to the changing times, and yet still preserve their traditions and culture?

Becky Shamen had originally wrote in 2016 about the twenty-three sim Wild-West themed roleplay area she simply called "The Wild West Roleplay Lands." I was recently approached by Goneigh, or "Gone" as his friends call him, who usually goes about in a feral horse avatar. He owns one of the sims of the place, Tittingham, or "Indiana Wilds." He told me he was just one of a number of sim owners there, some owning one, some two or three, whom had banded their locations together so their roleplayers had a huge place to roam around in, from the flat prairies of Oklahoma to the dry desert of western Texas and northern Mexico, to the Rockies. "One sim is nothing," Goneigh told me, "but 23 sims offers much adventure. We have green places, snowy places, and red-dirt places." The entire area combined had no official name, though "Wild West Roleplay" would do for now.

While you can find the RP HUD in most sims, it is recommended that new players start at the store area above the Colorado sim at (190/105/944). follow the gold arrows to a cavern. There you will find a few recommended items for purchase, and a few freebie outfits and weapons. Click the stagecoach, select "to join" and then teleport and go down a tunnel, which leads to a board where you can get the RP HUD, an observer tag, and a copy of the rules. Goneigh felt two rules deserved special notation. One was that this was a plot driven roleplay and not just a "shoot-em-up." Anyone whom just went around shooting people would be treated as a threat by everyone. Goneigh did say there were a few examples of attacks by such people that were later talked about "in character" as attacks by unknown lone badmen. Another rule was one that fans of nonhuman avatars would likely dislike. Like a number of other historical RPs, there's a rule about having to look like someone from the time and place, both in appearance and dress. So one is limited to human avatars, wearing styles of clothing that could be seen in the Old West, or feral animal avatars of domestic and North American animals, such as horses. So while furry avatars aren't within the rules, neither are obviously out of the time period styles of clothing such as punk rock outfits and hairstyles.

The HUD is in a box that has to be set down and opened, but fortunately you can do that in the entry area. It has a number of symbols on the top row, a red bar and a green bar in the middle, and more symbols on the bottom row. The red bar is the health meter, and starts out low when first activated, but soon builds up. When hit by bullets, weapons, or animal attacks, it goes down. When it reaches zero as the result of a fight, the player is considered "defeated," and must wait to recover, or be healed. The top buttons are for, food (such as apples and tomatoes), fluids (such as water), plants (such as herbs), tools, objects, components, and medicine. Two smaller bars under those are for hunger and thirst (okay at the start). On the bottom row, the first button brings up the players coins. The second button takes the player in and out of OOC mode. The third button is for putting the player in a melee position. The fifth button can also put the player in melee mode and toggles male/female sounds. The sixth button brings up webpages explaining some things about the game: meter usage, inventory usage, inventory description, and RP Object description. On the very bottom is a button showing how many coins the player has on hand. Over the player will be displayed the player's health and condition, red when low, orange when medium, and green when good.

In the part of the beginner's area where you get the HUD, you will find a list of some of the administrators. If you have some questions, feel free to answer some questions.

So how can one make money in the RP? At Tittingham, there is a mine in the north, center part of the sim. One can reach it, by going along the river next to the mountain, waliing into what at first looks like just a dent in the mountain wall, but turns out to be a hidden cave. There are spots where one can mine coal, iron, tin, copper, silver, and gold. To mine, get the pickaxe in the hand of one skeleton on the ground and wear it. Then sit on the spot you want to mine. Coal doesn't take long to mine, just 15 seconds to break off a chunk. But each metal takes longer, iron 30 seconds, tin 45, copper 60, silver 90, and gold 120. When ore is mined, it's recorded in your HUD.

There is a furnace nearby where you can smelt ores into bars, and forge the bars into items, such as blades and axeheads, and can also be used to make "blanks," which are used to help make certain other items. Items you make in the furnace are also counted in your HUD. There's also a couple tomatoes that spawn here, as well as some plants and a couple peices of wood.

Along the road in the western part of Tittingham, there are a couple shops. The one slightly further away from the road has some NPC merchants and workstations. NPC characters here will buy and sell certain items at a 50/100 percent cash value. For instance, the blacksmith will buy bronze bars you make from the cave furnace for 23 coins. But it takes 46 to buy one off of him. The merchant will buy your gold bars here for 43 coins. So you could make a little cash here as a miner. But you can also use the bars at the mine to forge items like blades and axeheads at a furnace, and use the workstation to make those items into knives and axes. You'll need wood, which besides in the mine spawns in a spot just outside the store. Five wood pieces can be combined into a log, of which you'll need one apiece to make items like knives, axes, and shovels, along with a "blank" which needs one bronze bar and a coal to make 10. Both items will raise your melee strength in a fight.

Should you meet anyone, remember that you're expected to act and behave like someone in the Old West. Any Out of Character chat is recommended to be in parentheses, or otherwise obvious that it is. These people may include cowboys, lawmen, American Indians, or possibly bandits. The latter may leave new players alone out of courtesy, though there's always the chance encountering them may lead to the player being demanded "Stand and deliver."

So there are a few details about getting started. Later on, we'll discuss more about some of the groups of people, and more. For now

Monday, January 30, 2017

Deaflegacy recently interviewed Stepinwolf Darkstone. While most readers might not recognize the name, many of you will recognize the places he helps take care of: Virtual Ability's apartments for it's disabled residents. She had a few words with him about what the job involves.

Also at the club, Brandi Streusel of Brandi's Intimates, known to her fans as "Brandi's Panties," is putting up several items of clothing up for sale, the proceeds of each going to help out RECoyote. Like a number of her other products, these are of a rather cheeky nature (some of which we can't show on the paper's front page).

The benefit on Tuesday January 31 runs from 4 to 6PM with DJ Geerkil, and 6 to 8PM with DJ Tantari.

**MONDAY, January 30th, at 7 pm: Theodore Isaac Rubin's DAVID and LISA with Gyro Muggins

**TUESDAY, January 31st, at 7 pm: John Steinbeck's OF MICE AND MEN (Part 2 of 3) at Seanchai Library's EXPLORE on the Kitely Grid (grid.kitely.com:8002:EXPLORESeanchai) AND at the Main Seanchai Library in Second Life.

The Happy Vixen is having a Tail Sale to help our friend and neighbor Recoyote Mindes. He is someone whom has helped many of us, it is now our turn to help him. Most of you know what he is facing, he will be strapped for cash trying to pay for medical expenses.

So to help him out, we are doing a tail sale. It starts Feb 1st and goes on to Feb 9th, where the winning bids will be declared. We need tails to auction as well, so if you would like to be in the auction, please IM Nydia Tungsten to get the application.

Saturday, January 28, 2017

For fans of the Burn2 art and music festival, this weekend the spinnoff event "Fire Moon" is taking place this weekend.

The first New Moon of 2017 will be on the 27th of January, which
coincides with the Chinese New Year on the 28th, bringing in the Year of
the Fire Rooster. And thus we arrive at the theme for our next event at
BURN2: Fire Moon!

For more on the festival, check the Burn2 website at https://burn2.org/. Or you can just head straight to the Deep Hole sim where the event is taking place.

Behind the trucker is a real life family, and his mother has fallen ill with cancer. Nydia Tugsten posted the news last night as a group announcement.

Reco's Mom went into ICU Saturday. They're now there with her. Small cell cancer in her lungs, brains and a couple other places.She is on her second day of kemo today, one more day of it they will need to wait at least a week to see if the mass in her lung breaks up.

Reco, we are all here for you, if you need anything, let us know and we will help in any way we can.

Earlier today, RECoyote had this response.

Ok, I do need help. This has used up all of my money and I can use any money any of you can spare me. Please help. paypal recoyote@pld.com Thank you y'al.Please help if you can

Now the one who has helped many finds himself in need of help. Those who have some cash to spare are asked to help out a little.

Once again, the requested donations can be sent via Paypal to recoyote@pld.com .

Deaflegacy recently interviewed Tindallia Soothsayer, one of the Giant Snail Racing team. For eight years, she has taken part in this longest running of Second Life's sporting events, both as a racer and as a member of the staff. Earlier this month, "Tindy" as her friends call her dropped a bombshell. She is stepping down as one of the racers, though will remain as one of the staff.

Mylie Foxclaw's latest fashion article deals with items of a price that is sure to attract attention: free or nearly free. From a few places offering items as freebies, or highly discounted specials, she has put together a few looks. So get ready to see some styles for the month.

Frets Nirvana and US Military Veterans Group announce the 2017 kickoff benefit for Homes For Our Troops in Second Life!

Frets Nirvana, the premier guitar artist in the virtual world Second Life and the US Military Veterans Group announce a benefit on December 18, 2016 in Second Life for the Veterans Support Organization for Home For Our Troops .

Frets Nirvana states: “HFOT is a privately funded 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization building specially adapted, mortgage-free homes nationwide for the most severely injured Veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan. Most of these Veterans are multiple amputees, paraplegic, quadriplegic or suffered severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). As of January 2017 they have built 229 homes for severely wounded Veterans and have another 85 projects underway. Since its inception in 2004, over 90 cents of every dollar spent by Homes for Our Troop has gone to directly support Veterans. ”

Home for Our Troops benefit concerts feature premier Second Life talent monthly at Veteran’s Isle. The concert on January 29, 2017 is scheduled from 4-9 PM PST. Featured artists will be DJ Waya Snowpaw, Zak Claxton, Frets Nirvana, Cryptic Harmony and Ganjo Mokeev .

ABOUT HOMES FOR OUR TROOPS - HFOT builds homes as a departure point for Veterans to rebuild their lives, and once again become highly productive members of society. Despite their life-altering injuries, many Veterans have embarked on new careers, completed their college degrees, or started families. Empowered by the freedom a mortgage-free and specially adapted home brings, these Veterans can now focus on their recovery and return to their life’s work of serving others. Many have embraced their roles as motivational speakers, sharing their messages of persevering through tragedy with groups and classrooms around the country; others take to a national platform to promote awareness of veteran suicide, homelessness and PTSD. Their incredible stories are the driving force for the work for HFOT. To learn more about the Homes For Our Troops visit https://www.hfotusa.org.

Thursday, January 26, 2017

Last Friday, January 20, was Inauguration Day, when President Trump was sworn into office. In a few places in Second Life, notably in London City, the new President was celebrated. But not everyone was celebrating. Some artists have responded with protests, and one designer has made available inworld the pink hat worn by the women's rights protestors in real life.

BAY CITY, SL (22nd January, 2017) - Bay City will once again come together to celebrate the hardy Moles of the Linden Department of Public Works on the 4th of February. The event will be held in the Bay City Fairgrounds in North Channel. As in past years, the invitation is open to all Second Life® members to join in the fun.

This will be the 7th such event, set aside to show appreciation for The Moles and their many contributions to Bay City and the rest of the Second Life™ Grid.

Normally held on the same day as Groundhog Day, this year's event will be observed two days later, taking advantage of the weekend. The event will feature a performance by DJ GoSpeed of KONA Stream at 11:00 a.m., followed by a live performance by Oblee (Obleoinkment Wrigglesworth) beginning at noon.

"Moles" are members of The Linden Department of Public Works (LDPW). The LDPW is a program focused on improvements related to the experience of living on, or visiting the Linden Mainland. The LDPW is a team of Resident builders, scriptwriters, and others to create new content on Linden Lab's behalf and to the benefit of all. These Residents all have Second Life accounts with the last name “Mole.”

Moles build the infrastructure of Second Life: the public roads and railways, items in our coastal waterways and protected lands, and even larger scale projects like the Linden Homes regions, premium content and experiences, and much more.

Bay City is a mainland community, developed by Linden Lab® and home to the Bay City Alliance. The Bay City Alliance was founded in 2008 to promote the Bay City regions of Second Life and provide a venue for Bay City Residents and other interested parties to socialize and network. It is now the largest group for Residents of Bay City.

For more information, or to participate in the event, please contact Marianne McCann.

Gemma Cleanslate's latest travels took her to a place that can take visitors to other places representing different time periods, the Time Portal Community. Created by Jo Yardley, noted for her 1920s Berlin Project, the hub is for "time travelers and virtual history." Gemma used it to engage in a virtual history tour herself.

As we go about our Second Lives, we gain friends. But over time, some of them drop out. Sometimes they'll tell you they're leaving. Other times, they just simply vanish, with no clue as to why. Did they have some kind of long-lasting financial or health misfortune, or worse? With partnerships, it's even worse. The person you've invested so much time and heart with has suddenly vanished, and you can't imagine anything but something going very wrong. But maybe the reason is something else entirely. Mylie Foxclaw takes a look into the issue as to why some residents just drop out of Second Life.

On Sunday January 22 at Noon, a party was held for the staff of the Second Life Newser and it's neighbors and friends. Nydia Tungsten, who got her start in Second Life as DJ "Naughty" Nydia, played the tunes for the event, though most. The event took place in Cynthia Farshore's Goblin Cave in Pacific Waters.

Over a course of three hours, a few dozen people dropped by, including Any1 Gynoid, who was a writer early in the Newser's history, Breezes Babi, whom was with the Newser's predecessor paper the Second Life Newspaper, and Trader and Arizona Whiplash of T-1 Radio.

There was much to celebrate as the Newser had a successful year covering events in Second Life with over a thousand articles, briefs, cartoons, and other posts. There was even more to celebrate as it turned out December had our highest readership of any month: 45,000 readers. We would also be getting another sponsor that day, the Indian Wilds Wild West Roleplay.

Monday, January 23, 2017

The Second Life Newser has a new sponsor, the Indiana Wilds Wild West Roleplay. The region consists of 23 sims representing various places of the late 1860s western US. One can play as a cowboy, lawman, trader, badman, American Indian, or one of the animals that makes the place their home, such as horses. We'll have an article about the place soon. If you can't wait to get there, head on over to Colorado (190/105/944) to learn more about the roleplay (and pick up a few freebie clothes, weapons, and combat and RP HUD).

A few people have been talking about the movie "Sing." But one Second Life has dreams of singing on stage in real life. The catch, she could use a little help getting there.

The Newser was recently informed by one of it's readers that Ghost Hatter Firehaven (Ladycherokee Wetherby), had started a gofundme page under her real-life identity of Lasca Brandow. The objective, to raise enough money to get to the February 4rth audition of "The Voice," a singing competition reality television show. The event takes place in Las Vegas.

"I am told I should by a lot of people when I sing," Ghost told me of where she got the idea of getting on "The Voice," going on to say she sings much in real life, "Karaoke places. I love it. When I do the blues I am told I should go for 'The Voice,' and I am told I have a lot of heart when I sing." She says she sings most everything from blues to rock.

Ghost mentioned her mother in the gofundme page, "My late Mother always wanted me to do something with my voice." This included being on TV, "doing one of the contests, or doing voice overs."

Ghost hopes to raise a total of $540 USD. She hopes to have the money by February 2.

A few days ago in the Linden blog, Xiola Linden announced there would would be a Valentines Day themed shopping event. The event begins on February 1st, and ends on February 14. The Lab called for merchants to sign up for the occasion. The deadline has passed, though shoppers can be ready for it.

Love is in the air - Calling all
Merchants! We’re putting together a little inworld shopping event around
the theme of Valentine’s Day and we want you to submit your brand! ... The event will run from February 1st
through the 14th, and while we are not asking for an exclusive item, we
are asking that your items be offered at a discount of at least 20% for
the duration of the event.To read the blog entry in full, click here.

When it comes to multiplayer WW2 combat vehicle games, most will probably think of "World of Tanks" or "World of Warships." But there are others out there. One that's gotten some attention is "War Thunder." Starting off as an air combat game, it's been expanded over time to cover ground, and more recently sea battles. But even if one sticks to the tanks, there are a number of differences from it's more famous counterpart.

Friday, January 20, 2017

Today is Inauguration Day, when America swears in a new President. While there were people gathered in some places, such as with the Second Life Republicans, the most visible display welcoming in President Trump was at London City, where this colorful display was set up at (79/226/23). Although the election was controversial and filled with high amounts of arguing and rhetoric, the discussion seemed civil when I peeked in (it's possible the Linden nearby helped).

Last night on Thursday January 19 at 6 PM, the Happy Vixen closed for the night and the party was moved to Perri's Xanadu at HV Community (67/207/4051. The reason, the day before was the rezzday of it's part owner Perri Prinz. Perri didn't know about the event as it was done impromptu as a surprise.

DJ Serenity, the black mousegirl who usually performs at the Happy Vixen on Thursdays, spun the tunes for the first couple hours. The theme was Steampunk, with 1000L placed on each board.

Finally, Perri showed up, much to the cheers of the crowd. And after a couple birthday hugs danced with her partner Recoyote Mindes. The party would go on to 10PM SL time with Skylark Lefavre DJing for the next couple hours.

On Sunday January 15 at 1PM SL time, various members of the Relay for Life in Second Life met at the Relay d Alliez sim. They were celebrating the announcement days earlier that following the results of the Christmas Expo, the Relay for Life in Second Life had raised a total of over three million US dollars since it began in 2005.

These pictures had been posted by Luna Portilo (Luna Vonrandolf) from Foundation For Life on the Relay for Life in Second Life's Facebook page.

The 2017 Relay For Life season in Second Life will begin with Kickoff on
March 5th. Team registration will be announced shortly. Grid
residents interested in participating can join the Relay For Life
Volunteers group
(secondlife:///app/group/7f1cc591-7968-9204-4082-98c7e544c371/about) for
more information about joining or starting a team.

Thursday, January 19, 2017

Wow! What a way to end 2016. I am proud to announce that we were successful in sending Homes For Our Troops $1650 for the month of December in 2016. This brings our total for 2016 to a little over $13000. This is humbling and a proud moment. And it is only because of the efforts of many fine people in Second Life. In December we would like to give a shout out to the extra efforts of these people:

In real life this week, the United States says goodbye to President Obama, the country's first from an ethnic minority. While he accomplished a few things, such as the "Affordable Health Care Act," his term was also noted for initial hopes of a nation finally free of racism dashed as his political opponents were charged with bias and in turn his most vocal supporters were accused of it as well. In Second Life, as we can all look like whatever we want to, one might think an avatar's appearance wouldn't be a big deal. As it turns out, there are a few places that are likely to hassle you for being the wrong kind. But how widespread is the problem?

On Tuesday January 17 at 5PM SL time at the Cookie sim, comedian Lauren Weyland held the last of her weekly stand-up comedy shows in Second Life. For ten years, she/he had been doing the performances with only a handful of weeks missed. And now, it was time for the final one, and the close of an era in Second Life comedy.

As she always had whenever I've seen her, Lauren drew a large crowd, some with signs saying "Thanks for the laughs, Lauren." The show was different from others as Lauren looked back at his/her ten year virtual career, which included a few real ones at Second Life Community Conventions.

The show would poke fun at Second Life, such as the tale of the virtual hooker whom continued to do business with her best client even when it was revealed like Lauren "she" was a male in real life, "but we'll keep it on text." The comedy would also poke fun at real life newsmakers, such as Donald Trump whom assumes the US Presidency later this week and Chelsea Manning, a transsexual serving time in prison for leaking secrets to Wikileaks whose sentence had been shortened by President Obama that day.

The crowd included a few noted personalities, such as filmmaker Chantal
Harvey, DrFran Babcock and Any1 Gynoid whom wrote for the Newser in the
past, and Catboy Qunhua who volunteers for the Second Life Birthday, as well as doing one of the supporting acts of the stand-up show.

The show will continue on, relying on those whom had been Laurens supporting acts such as Doc Grun and Jamie Jordon. But the noted blonde with the falseto voice will be absent.

"All of you, to my last breath, will be my friends." Lauren says while this is the end of her weekly show, this is not the end of her comedy in Second Life. She says she'll pop up "time to time."